Tuesday, July 23 Day 88
Today Scotty had an appointment with Dr. Patt the Orth-Oncologist at the LCI. I went along to be the note taker and escort for Scotty while Deborah parks the car. We were greeted at the front door by " Emanuel"
with a wheel chair and he agrees to chauffeur us up to Dr. Patt's office. Emanuel has a great big smile and was such a nice guy. He actually returns at the end of the appointment to take Scotty down to the front door while Deborah and I go to get the car. I was getting a tour of the facility by Deborah so I would know where to come if I need to bring Scotty on my own. (Actually she forgot where she parked so we explored the rows of cars in the deck !) LOL !! She claimed she was showing me how much better this deck was than the one at CMC main but I knew what she was up to ! LOL!!! We were greeted by 2 very nice receptionist in Dr. Patt's office and Scotty and his jovial self introduces me as the "Sister in law" and not some pick - up ! We all got a good laugh! Deborah enters the office and he tells them this is his real wife ! Not sure what he meant by that but we had the office all just laughing.
The nurse takes us back and begins getting his BP and oxygen level. His oxygen level was at 98% which is good but his blood pressure was elevated a bit. Probably from the excitement of getting out and the anxiety of having a doctor visit. Not knowing what the doctor is going to say always raises your BP in a normal situation much less in Scotty's case. Dr. Patt comes in and begins to ask Scotty about his pain levels and if he had any other concerns. Scotty immediately told him the brace want stay up on him since he lost weight and he asked him if he could get in the pool with his PT. He also asked him what he could and couldn't do and did he have to keep wearing the brace. If you recall Scotty did not get to see Dr. Patt several weeks ago because that was the day they put him back in the hospital with the lung infection. So this is the first time they had seen him since June. Dr. Patt took a deep breathe and started answering Scotty and Deborah's questions. First of all he said there is nothing new or different and the spot is still showing on the xray. Meaning that the assumption is if he did a biopsy of the cells in the growth they would probably be dead. The radiation had done its job. However the healing of the vertebrae can take 6 months to 9 months to 1 year to repair itself. There is still nothing between the L4 and L5 and there is no surgery procedure that can do anything to help in this situation. He can take the brace off to get in the pool and can take a break from wearing it more often now. That made Scotty smile. He also called over to the company that made the brace and sent us over to get it adjusted to fit him better once the appointment was over. Dr. Patt told us that his job was finished at this time and that the next step was to make sure he was strong enough to start treatment for the liver. He did say the CT scan did show the tumor in the liver had grown some since the first CT and that it was very important for Scotty to continue to develop his strength so the liver treatment can start. He told us Dr. Sumrall would talk more about this on July 30th. Dr. Patt also said the most important thing right now is to make sure the lung infection was taken care of and he was sure the team was in agreement they must wait so many days after being off antibiotics to be able to tell this. Not sure what the magic wait time is. Like I said we hope to know more on the 30th.
After we left the brace place we head to Sam's to look for some chemicals for the pool and Scotty a couple of pairs of shorts and a few shirts ! Bless his heart. He has lost down to 168.4 and all of his shorts and shirts are swallowing him up. I just kept hoping he could keep the shorts up as we strolled through Sam's. Which he did until we were walking out to the car after checking out ! Yep if you hear anything about a man pushing a walker standing in the parking lot of the Sam's in Pineville mooning people it would be Scotty ! The shorts went down and he was quick to get them back up ! His face was red as it could be ! We had a good laugh !
So for now Scotty will continue to get stronger and exercise his body to get in shape and build up his stamina for his future treatments. He will go back to Dr. Patt in six weeks and of course has the appointments on July 30th. I will update the blog later this week and let you know how his day in the pool goes ! He is very excited about that.
Please continue to pray for Scotty, Deborah , and Noah as they continue to travel through this journey !!! We have surrendered all things to the one above and know he is in control. We fill his presence as we move through each and everyday.
Isaiah 43: 2 " When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."
